1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a suction tube for use in an surgical operation such as plastic surgery which is performed by use of a aspirator for aspirating, for instance, subcutaneous fat, and more particularly to an improvement in and concerning a surgical suction tube with which a surgical operation for fat aspiration can be performed readily and safely and which is expected to reduce the period for healing an operation wound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been conventionally used a suction tube for aspirating subcutaneous fat by use of a fat aspirator, as illustrated in FIG. 1. This suction tube comprises a suction tube body Ts integrally incorporating therein a fluid supply tube Ta having a small diameter. A mouth m formed at the leading end of the suction tube body Ts is open in the axial direction of the suction tube. That is to say, the secant plane defining the mouth m is perpendicular to the axis X of the suction tube body Ts. In the case of using this suction tube in a surgical operation for aspirating subcutaneous fat of the abdomen, the leading end of the suction tube body Ts is first stuck into under the skin through an incision hole formed in the abdominal skin, and thereafter, subcutaneous adipose tissue is aspirated from the mouth m through the suction tube body Ts by means of an external fat aspirator (not shown) connected to the suction tube while intermittently blowing air or some other fluid toward the mouth m through the fluid supply tube Ta.
However, the prior art suction tube having such a structure as noted above is inevitably made relatively large in diameter because it incorporate therein the fluid supply tube Ta. It has been known in the surgical experience that when using such a suction tube having a large diameter, the incision hole formed in the skin is inevitably enlarged, consequently making an incision wound large and indecent, and various problems will possibly be encountered during a surgical operation. Besides, the suction tube body Ts provided inside with the fluid supply tube Ta is thus complicated in structure and difficult to manufacture, inevitably turning out to be expensive.
Moreover, the suction tube body Ts of the conventional suction tube has an inner cross section deformed in a non-circular shape due to the fluid supply tube Ta being disposed inside the suction tube body Ts. Hence, this suction tube entails disadvantages such that the efficiency of aspirating, for example, subcutaneous adipose tissues is lowered and the tube is easily clogged with sucked substances such as subcutaneous fat in a surgical operation.
Besides the problem described above, the conventional suction tube having a relatively large outer diameter and the mouth whose secant plane is perpendicular to the axial direction as mentioned above is possibly intended to aspirate subcutaneous fat more than required and is susceptible to injure blood vessels, nerve tissues and so on.